Smoking tobacco products



SMOKING TOBACCO PRODUCTS Oliver S. North, 2119 H St.NW., Washington 7, D.C. No Drawing. Filed June 12, 1957, Ser. No. 665,120

'3 Claims. 01. 131-47 This invention relates to smoking tobaccos for cigarettes, pipes and cigars, and more particularly to a tobacco having associated therewith a quantity of a certain additive, which mixture when smoked will produce a filtered smoke.

A number of compositions for and methods of filtering nicotine, dust and impurities from tobacco smoke before it is drawn into the smokers mouth are known. Many of these are expensive and inconvenient to manufacture and/or use, and it is desirable to provide a product having self-contained and inexpensive, yet relatively effective, means for accomplishing filtration of the smoke.

A principal object of this invention is to provide a tobacco composition which when smoked will have the smoke filtered of a largeportion of its content of nicotine and tars, dust and impurities.

Another object is to provide tobacco compositions and products that can be manufactured at a cost lower than or closely comparable to thatof like standard articles of commerce. 7

Another object is to provide smokers products having United s ate tefl Q Pat nted Qct..4,. 1960 ever, expanded vermiculite is a chemically and physically different material than is unexpanded vermiculite, and it is more expensive, having undergone an additional heattreating step. Further, the proposal has not been made to mix the vermiculite intimately with the tobacco throughout the body of the cigarette.

Vermiculite is a micaceous, hydrated magnesiumaluminum silicate mineral which is well known in industry, particularly in the construction, chemical and agricultural fields. While vermiculite is of fairly widespread mineralogical occurrence, the bulk of the commercial material now comes from the States of Montana the size, shape and general appearance of standard commercial products.

Broadly speaking, the objects of this invention are accomplished by disseminating quantities of unexpanded vermiculite in the tobacco.

I have discovered that a tobacco product in which is incorporated a quantity of unexpanded vermiculite particles will swell when it is smoked, due to the fact that the burning tobacco particles produce sufiicient heat to bring about exfoliation and marked expansion of the intimately associated crude vermiculite particles.

To accomplish at least partial filtration of smoke as the burning progresses, only a relatively very small amount of unexpanded vermiculite is used. When a cigarette so constituted is smoked there is suflicient expansion of vermiculite particles located at the point of spark to provide a plurality of thin platelets through which the smoke will be drawn to accomplish desirable filtration and prevent nicotine and impurities from being drawn into or through the remaining body of the cigarette, yet at the same time there is insufficient volume increase to split the wrapper paper or otherwise to disrupt the cigarette. As burning of the cigarette progresses, successive portions of vermiculite thus expanded are discarded along with the tobacco ash. This type of filtration is preferable to that accomplished by filter sections, or filter tips, because a filter section, of whatever composition or type, tends to become progressively more clogged with accumulating tars, nicotine, etc., as smoking proceeds, thus losing some of its eflectiveness. Furthermore, it is generally somewhat more economical to manufacture a cigarette composed wholly of a mechanical mixture of materials than one requiring provision of a special section or tip which is separate from the main body of the cigarette.

I am aware that there is described in US. Patent No. 2,786,471, issued to Kenneth Wayne Graybeal, a cigarette filter section composed of expanded vermiculite. Howand South Carolina, in the United States, and the Transvaal, Union of SouthAfrica. As prepared for the market, ores containing crude vermiculite are mined'and then beneficiated; or purified, by, various methods of concentration and sizing, so that the final product consists almost entirely. of unexpanded vermiculite flakes of uniform thickness and lateral dimensions. Different grades, or sizes, of material are commercially available. Ex-

, pansion, or exfoliation, of vermiculite can be accomplished at relatively very low temperatures, for example by a match flame, as contrasted with most other expandible inorganic materials which require much higher heats. Expansion' is caused by separation and warping of the individual laminae, so that thefinal particle consists of asuccession of extremely thin plates stacked one atop another .and separated fromeach other by more or less flat'air spaces, annd possessing a very large surface area.

SOME AVERAGE PHYSICAL AND I CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OFVERMICULITE [In part from Publication G-81, Zonollte oompanydentitled Chemical and Physical Properties of ZonollteBrand ermiculite 1 It may be here pointed out that a ton of unexpanded vermiculite, which can be bought for a few dollars, will make many thousands of any of the products described, and therefore this material is most economical to use for these purposes. The cost per unit of the products described very closely approximates the cost of similar products made without vermiculite.

Vermiculite is an inorganic material, and during the expansion process contemplated in the present invention is free of violent elfects, disagreeable odors of tastes, or any other form of objectionable manifestation.

This expansion, which commonly results in more than a tenfold increase in bulk volume, is due to the mechanical separation of the laminae when the contained water is converted into steam. In manufacturing the products of this invention I intimately mix together quantities of unexpanded vermiculite particles and tobacco. I prefer to use commercially-available cured particulate smoking tobacco or, in the case of cigars, commercially-available cigar tobacco leaf, and commercially-available unexpanded vermiculite. The tobacco used may contain additives, such as for binding or flavoring or otherwise improving the qualities of the finished product, or such additives may be added during or after mixing of the tobacco and unexpanded vermiculite.

I shall describe in th e following paragraphs the generally preferred compositions and methods of formulation of the various products at issue here. It will be understoodthab-in-all instances the proportions cited weight, came desired, cigarette tobacco is initimately j mixed with a small amounnforeirample I r05 percent,

by weight; of unexpandfed" vermiculite- Generally, it

7 willbe preferable to'useone of the intermediate partial sine. 'grades ,fof -,vermiculit'e, forfeit-ample the currently available. commercial gradeof which, by weight, about 95 percent will pass .a 28l-r'r'ie'sh Tyler screen and 80 to 85 percent of which will be retained on a 65-rnesh' Tyler screen The vermiculite-tobacco mixture, with or without additives for flavoring or-cooling' purposesv or' the like, is formed into cigarettes by any of the known methods, or .it may be packed in suitable sacks boxes, cans or the like for subsequent, use in hand-rolled cigarettes.

' I have found that'de'spit'e thedifterence's in specific grav-l ity and physical form of-the granular vermiculite and the shredded tobacco, the materialswill be so effectively held in a firmly wrappedicigarettethat vermiculite particles 7 will not readily become dislodgedfrom.thebutt of'the' cigarette and drawnintovthe smokers' mouth. I believe this to be due partly to mechanical adherenceof tobacco to vermiculite and partly to thewrapping around of vermiculite particles by tobacco" shreds during the mixing of the two materials. 1 7

Pipe tobacco compositions The pipe tobacco compositions here considered are made by. intimately mixing the desired pipe tobacco with uneirpanded vermiculite. Up to about 35 percent, by

weight, of unexpanded vermiculite may be used. Because Cigar compositions In. themanutacture. of cigars in. accordance with .this invention, unexpandedvermiculite flakes may be deposited either on several. or all of the leavesgprior to rolling, or on the exterior leaf or leaves only, or disposed at the core of the cigar.

I claim:

1.. A smoking mixture consistingv essentially oftobacco and from 1% up to 35% by weight of unexpanded vermiculite intimately admixed with the tobacco and uniformly distributed throughout the mixture.

2. A smoking mixture consisting essentially of between and 99% by weight of tobaccoand between 1% and 5 %1by weight of unexpanded vermiculite intimately admixed with the tobacco and uniformly distributed throughout the mixture. f

3. A cigarette consisting of a wrapper enveloping the mixture of claim 2. V,

V 7 References Cited in thefile' of this patent 'UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,462,480 Bosse July 24, 1925 1,808,707 Wiggins 'June 2, 1931 2,108,860 Kaufiman Feb; 22, 1938 2,786,471 Graybeal Mar. 26, 1957 2 ,881,769 Touey ..Apr. 14, 1959 

1. A SMOKING MIXTURE CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF TOBACCO AND FROM 1% UP TO 35% BY WEIGHT OF UNEXPANDED VERMICULITE INTIMATELY ADMIXED WITH THE TOBACCO AND UNIFORMLY DISTRIBUTED THROUGHOUT THE MIXTURE. 